I'm newly pregnant - about 7 weeks and trying to figure out our finances when the baby is here. Before my DH retrained and became self-employed, we earned the same. He now earns roughly £9K. My salary supports us entirely - rent, food, bills. He just about covers his debts.
I know I'll get 12 weeks at 90%, and I'll have about 20 days holiday to add to that. So we're OK for 4 months. After that, I'm completely freaking out. It seems we're going to be destitute because no matter how many benefit calculators I fill in, I can't get one to realistically apply our situation. Plus each time I do it, it comes up with a new figure!
SMP and child benefit will cover about half of our out-goings ONLY including rent, bills and food (obviously not including debts in that). Am I missing something? How do other low income families get by? I genuinely don't understand what we're entitled to, if anything.
I had hoped to take at least 6-9 months, but it's looking very unrealistic and I feel really depressed about it all. Childcare would wipe out my salary anyway so it seems to make no odds if I am working or not, which then takes me back to square one of being a single income family on £9K.